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Editor’s Note: This project was a collaboration between the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and The Daily Californian.

For a moment in 1996, a political milestone for Asian Americans was within Chang-Lin Tien’s reach. Former president Bill Clinton had placed him on the shortlist to be Secretary of Energy, and the chance to be the first Asian American to serve on a U.S. Cabinet was almost his.

But just days before Clinton’s official announcement, the White House called to tell Tien, then chancellor of UC Berkeley, that the president had removed him from the running. A breaking campaign finance scandal had evoked fear nationwide that China had influenced the election. Suddenly, Tien’s appointment became politically impossible.

“He didn’t try to blame anybody,” said Tien’s former chief of staff John Cummins, who added that Tien — in typical fashion — took the loss with “great magnanimity.”

Tien had gotten caught up in something larger than himself. UC Berkeley’s beloved chancellor had become, not for the first or last time, a token of the geopolitical tension between the United States and China.

Today, 10 years after Tien’s death, recently obtained FBI documents and interviews with some of his family and closest associates show that though Tien opened doors for minorities with his enormous success as a scientist and an educator, he was nevertheless a lightning rod for a fear of China that consumed the United States in the latter half of the 20th century.

“He’s a symbol of Chinese-American success and contribution in this country, and it’s almost in spite of xenophobia that this country has about China … an example of somebody rising above the barrier,” said George Koo, a member of the Committee of 100, an organization dedicated to improving the political stature of Asian Americans and the United States’ relationship with China.

Suspicions of communism

After coming to the United States from Taiwan in 1956, Tien finished two master’s degrees and a doctorate in just three years. He joined UC Berkeley’s department of mechanical engineering in 1959 and became the subject of FBI scrutiny just as he began to rise to prominence.

“Tien’s FBI files reflect the bureau’s general concern about Chinese espionage and collection of sensitive technological data in the United States,” said Seth Rosenfeld, a journalist who recently wrote “Subversives,” a book based on FBI records.

Tien, a Chinese-born immigrant, was just the kind of highly successful scientist the FBI was worried about. He was the youngest assistant professor ever hired in his department and at age 26 became the youngest professor to receive a Distinguished Teaching Award. In 1974, he was promoted to chair of his department. “Walking down the streets of Taipei with Tien is like walking down the streets of Chicago with Michael Jordan,” said Dan Mote, Tien’s former colleague and close friend.

It was Tien’s trips to Taiwan and mainland China that attracted the FBI’s attention. Every time Tien traveled to a research conference or abroad, the FBI reopened his file, worried that he was sharing sensitive information, and investigated him without his knowledge — until 1975, when the agency decided to interview him.

In that interview, Tien explained to an agent that he supported China’s communist government and thought it had actually “rooted out many of the social problems of that country.” He added that he did “not promote the communist system as being of benefit to the United States or anyone else.”

Later in the same interview, the FBI proceeded to try to make Tien an informant, apparently as part of a program involving Chinese scientists. A letter from FBI headquarters to the San Francisco FBI field office prior to the interview suggests that Tien and another scientist whose name is redacted who traveled to China with Tien in 1974 “could logically be approached under the Chinese scientist program.”

This interview summary describes Tien as “very friendly,” but the the response the FBI received in 1979 when it interviewed him inquiring about visiting scholars to UC Berkeley from China was quite different.

“Professor Tien stated he did not desire to have any contact with the FBI and questioned the FBI’s right to ask questions about (People’s Republic of China) scholars, stating that they were all legitimate scholars involved in purely academic pursuits. He expressed his belief that the FBI was continuing to harass Chinese academicians like himself just as was done during the 1950s,” a report of the interview reads.

The FBI declined to comment on Tien’s files.

The agency’s documents provide no indication that Tien was ever engaged in any activity counter to U.S. interests, and the FBI eventually stopped contacting him.

A leader undeterred

Although Tien’s ethnicity attracted unwanted attention from the FBI, his authentic persona, including his heavy Chinese accent, won him over with everyone on campus.

Long before he ran UC Berkeley, Tien confided to a colleague his ambitions to someday become chancellor of the campus. Mote, also a mechanical engineering professor, remembers questioning how Tien could achieve the position with his accent, to which Tien responded, “I’ve got this figured out. It’s going to work.”

In 1990, Tien became the first Asian American chancellor of a major research university and went on to preside over some of the most successful years UC Berkeley had ever seen. Legend has it that Tien, proud of his accent, refused to use a speech coach despite suggestions to do so. It was exactly that unassuming and positive attitude that endeared him to students.

He sometimes went into the locker room during football games to give the team a pep talk, took cookies to students in the library at midnight during finals week, drove students he saw waiting at the bus stop home and once even walked to a student’s apartment to return a wallet he had found on campus.

Melany Hunt, one of Tien’s doctoral students in the 1980s, met her future husband in Tien’s lab. “He led the Conga line through the kitchen at the wedding reception,” she said.

“He was the first chancellor where students would routinely come up to him, want their picture taken with him, want an autograph from him,” Cummins said. “It was because the students knew how much he really cared for them.”

Secretary of Energy

For all his charm, Tien remained a subject of controversy because of his ethnicity, even as U.S.-China relations improved.

In December 1996, less than a year before Tien planned to step down as chancellor, president Bill Clinton was on the search for a new Secretary of Energy, and Tien was up for the job.

At the time, Tien was actively soliciting donations for the East Asian Library, creating a donor list that would eventually comprise hundreds of names of Chinese expatriates. One major contributor was Mochtar Riady, a Chinese businessman who lived in Indonesia. Today, a plaque with Riady’s name inscribed in gold letters is displayed within the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley.

As a donor, Riady appeared to have some sway on the campus. Prior to late 1996, one of Riady’s relatives had been admitted to the UC Berkeley even though she had submitted her test scores after the deadline, which, in any other circumstance, would have barred her from admission.

Nationally, Riady was also embroiled in a scandal brewing within the Clinton campaign in which the media suspected Asian donors of giving money illegally to influence the president’s China policies.

Ling-Chi Wang, a UC Berkeley Asian American studies professor emeritus, said that based on his own research, there was no intervention on the part of Tien in the admissions decisions for Riady’s relatives. Nevertheless, the damage was done.

“Chancellor Tien’s reputation was smeared,” said Wang, who added that Tien fell victim to a broader wave of political persecution of Asian Americans.

In the ensuing months, the U.S. Senate investigated hundreds of campaign contributions, drawing no distinction, critics claimed, between Asians with U.S. citizenship and foreign nationals. Many Asian Americans felt hesitant to donate. “Why would I make a contribution? I’ll get investigated because of my race,” Wang said.

A cautious opportunity

Everyone who knew Tien remembers the Chinese calligraphy of the word “weiji” that he had on the wall of his office.

The two characters that form the word translate as “crisis” and “opportunity,” generally interpreted as an optimistic sentiment. But Tien, according to his friend Mote, also saw in it “caution during times of opportunity.”

Accordingly, Tien’s son Norman said that though his father was disappointed that Clinton did not grant him what he saw as a “tremendous opportunity,” he graciously accepted the missed chance.

“He wanted to make an impact,” said Norman Tien, who is now dean of engineering at Hong Kong University. “Period. It was not necessarily so much about the position or the title.”

In 1998, Clinton announced that Tien would be appointed to the prestigious board that oversees the U.S. National Science Foundation, the country’s agency that supports research and education in science.

It may have been a consolation prize, but it was a victory nonetheless.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the 1996 campaign finance scandal, Asian Americans around the country continued to fight to regain their reputation, forming a movement to gain a political voice.

“We were nameless and faceless and powerless,” Wang said.

But just as the efforts to grow a defined Asian American voting population for the 2000 presidential election picked up speed, another political scandal broke that induced a severe distrust of China.

In 1999, Wen Ho Lee, a scientist who worked for the University of California’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, was indicted for stealing secrets about the United States’ nuclear arsenal for China.

The case sparked outrage among many Asian Americans, both because Lee was put in solitary confinement during the investigation and because there was little evidence against him. Eventually, Lee was only convicted on one charge, and Clinton issued a public apology to him.

Henry S. Tang, the chair of Committee of 100 — of which Tien was a member — spoke out against Lee’s imprisonment, echoing what Tien had said years before about the FBI’s suspicions of Chinese scientists: “No matter how accomplished, no matter how educated, no matter how wealthy, no matter how loyal, (an Asian American) could still become suspected of activities counter to the interests of this country.”

Tien himself called Lee’s release from jail “long overdue.”

Although a huge gaffe on the part of the media and the government, the Wen Ho Lee incident invigorated Asian Americans, and progress followed.

Tien began his position on the U.S. National Science Board in July 1999 in the midst of the Wen Ho Lee case, and Clinton — playing on Tien’s role as a symbol of Asian Americans’ success — included a thinly veiled apology for the Wen Ho Lee debacle in his statement on Tien’s first day.

“Security matters are of the highest priority in my Administration, but history has shown the damage to the lives of our citizens and to our society that results from the destructive grip of prejudice, suspicion and discrimination,” Clinton said.

The statement went on to say, “Professor Tien carries on the principles and cherished traditions of Asian Pacific Americans who have helped build and strengthen our nation with diligence and determination.”

A little more than a year later, Tien was diagnosed with a brain tumor and suffered a stroke during surgery. He stepped down from his duties the following year and died on Oct. 29, 2002, at age 67.

But even now, exactly 10 years after his death, Tien’s contributions are still remembered.

Steven Chu, a Chinese-American and director of the university’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, became Secretary of Energy in 2009, building upon the promise that began when Tien was nothing more than a bright young professor suspected of having communist sympathies.

Chancellor Tien was a hardcore Cal fan and his spirit and love for the school was always evident, even if he was just walking through lower Sproul. Go Bears!

mthardie

I was neither a student nor an immediate friend of Chancellor Tien; I was a UC Berkeley staffer during the entire time he was chancellor. I observed him, and I admired him deeply for the work he did. Though I’m now retired, I still miss him. He was very, very special.

http://www.facebook.com/tony.daysog Tony Daysog

This was an incredibly fun and enligtening article. Made me think: why doesn’t the DailyCal intentionally write articles that may be of keen interest to its throngs and throngs of alums across the world? Seems like you have a great little-tapped audience just waiting to read these kinds of stuff, in addition to what’s going on with football and other athletic teams at Cal. Something to think about. . .

http://www.facebook.com/tony.daysog Tony Daysog

Go Bears!

bp

his name is on one of the best libraries on campus

Calipenguin

This is an excellent article, and Chancellor Tien was an inspiration to many. However, the author of this article tries to portray Chancellor Tien as a victim of racism, when in fact it was Tien’s own activities that garnered attention from the FBI and probably the CIA. Tien was born in China but escaped to Taiwan with the Nationalist Party during the civil war of 1948-1949. He should have hated the Commies, but he saw them as fellow Chinese people subjugated by a tyrant. As the decades rolled by Taiwan became an economic miracle while China nearly destroyed itself with the Cultural Revolution. China closed its borders to tourism but many Chinese businessmen and academics in the free world longed to return some day to uplift the misguided Commies and restore China as an economic and cultural powerhouse (and at the same time let the world know that Chinese people are good at many things other than Kung Fu and Chow Mein). When China finally opened its borders many expatriates visited the Communist country. It was widely known that China had a clandestine spying operation that targeted Chinese academics living in advanced Western nations. China needed expertise in nuclear weaponry, missile guidance systems, space systems, energy production, and manufacturing technology. If the expatriates could not educate the Chinese scientists, they could smuggle in useful classified information. The U.S. had counter-intelligence operations that also targeted U.S. citizens of Chinese heritage who traveled frequently in China. Thus it was Tien’s frequent travels in China and his deep desire to help the downtrodden people of his own kind that made him a target of FBI investigations. I don’t blame him for wanting to help members of his own ethnicity rise out of poverty, just like many Cal students of South Asian or Middle Eastern heritage who travel abroad frequently to help poor villagers. However, he should not be surprised that his frequent interaction with academics and government officials from an enemy Communist country involved in an arms race with the U.S. would invite closer scrutiny from America’s counter-espionage community. Any Cal professor who traveled frequently to Stalingrad or Havana would have faced the same scrutiny. Anyways, keep up the good work Soumya, I really enjoyed reading this article.

You miss the point

Scrutiny is one thing, but being eliminated from the running for a Cabinet position even after no condemning evidence was found? That’s not justified, and not Tien’s fault.

adsahdj

There was condemning evidence: he admitted he supported China’s Maoist government.

You miss the point

Supporting a government and being a spy are two different things.

Reader

I really wish the Daily Cal always wrote articles like this.

I_h8_disqus

Is it really racism to suspect someone who came from a country of possibly working for that country against US interests?

Paranoid, xenophobic, and nationalistic — I agree! But it was appropriate for that time in our nation’s history. We were approaching the end of the Cold War. China had nukes, it had ICBMs, and it was thirsty for new technology. Clinton had a real problem with Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky and couldn’t afford any more scandals. In retrospect we should have been a little more paranoid, xenophobic, and nationalistic before allowing 19 Middle Eastern flight students to board commercial aircraft armed with box cutters. We are not repeating the same mistakes of Executive Order 9066 because we are able to separate racism from true concerns for national security.

Yup

And to stop the Unibomber, we should have been more paranoid about white people.

Calipenguin

FBI profilers are well aware of certain white people. Does that make the FBI racist? Profilers can’t do their jobs unless they use every shred of information they can get. But racial profiling is such a nasty word these days.

Guest

Dude. China’s had nukes since the 60’s. It’s not like they just got the bomb in the 90’s and were looking for a target (like the US and Japan). And it has been “thirsty” for technology since the invention of civilization–like every other nation on the planet! What are you on about? You think because they’re asians they don’t deserve to pursue technology like white people do? And if WE are that scared about the possibility of them nuking us, they must be bowel-evacuated scared of our nuclear arms capability (which far, far, far outstrips theirs). Didn’t they just get their first ever aircraft carrier a couple weeks ago? Don’t we spend 10x more on our military than them? I hope you do realize that the main reason for nuclear proliferation in countries like N. Korea and Iran is that they want to bring their own nuclear card to the bargaining table…so as to be on a (hardly) even footing with the US and NATO in general. It’s not as though either N. Korea or Iran actually even have the missile capability to reach the US (let alone hit it). Whereas we can launch our nukes into their country from S. Korea or our nuclear-equipped subs, supersonic stealth bombers, or whatever.

And so now we are supposed to be wary of EVERY non-white, non-American person? There are more peaceful, nice, unscaryto(normal)whitepeople non-Americans in the world than there are Americans, and that’s a fact! You’ll just ruin the world if you run around thinking that everyone is out to get you, and acting accordingly.

Calipenguin

Dude, during the Cold War we didn’t care what color the spies were. We simply could not afford to allow our military secrets to be fall into foreign hands. I have no problem with Chinese scientists in Cal, MIT, Stanford, Singapore, UK and Canada developing advanced weaponry to defend the free world or assassinate al Qaeda. But I don’t want Chinese people in enemy nations to develop weapons that may be used against us. That is why it was appropriate for our counter-intelligence agencies to scrutinize anyone with numerous personal contacts in an enemy nation. I can’t help it if most of the people in that nation are non-white. I also don’t blame Chancellor Tien for wishing to maintain contact with colleagues behind the Bamboo Curtain. He should not expect to remain free of suspicion when he made so many trips to that enemy nation, and just because he was non-white does not make it racism to suspect the intent of his trips. I don’t think I’m being racist here, just realistic. Don’t try to make me out as a hater of non-white people. It was a time of global unease with the Soviets about to collapse and China beginning its reassertion of military strength.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S44FHKC2JIS3HFQNFWBGFWTIEU mark

I remember when Bill Clinton was giving away the store to China with his trade bill, Ling-Chi Wang accused anyone who opposed it of racism. Go take a look at a graph of the U.S.-China trade deficit since then. Isn’t it a fair question to ask whose side this guy is on? These tenured whiners really kill me. I wonder if they have any “indigenous/minority” studies programs in Chinese universities.

The Committee of 100 has never expressed any concern for the human rights of people in China. They promote the interests of the Communist Party and their associates. They don’t seem to be too interested in the interests of the American people either, only what’s in it for them. Maybe we should be more like China, summary executions on a mass scale and then auction off the body parts. We could cut the deficit.

At the conclusion of the Wen Ho Lee affair, the Chinese had managed to acquire the U.S. small nuclear warhead designs. When Clinton took office they were blowing up launch vehicles on the pad, after he hooked them up with influential donor Bernie Schwartz and Loral Corp,. they were able to successfully launch “killer” satellites to knock U.S. satellites out of the sky. Their demo of this added a big pile of space junk to the orbital path as well.

Did the reporter read the “gaffe” link?

”This conflicted with their China policy,” said an American official, who like many others in this article spoke on condition of anonymity. ”It undercut the Administration’s efforts to have a strategic partnership with the Chinese.” (“This” being the theft of nuclear secrets by the Chinese.)

Calipenguin

Ling-Chi Wang is from the Ethnic Studies Department, so everything appears to be motivated by racism. He may be right about Wen Ho Lee, but if the guy had been white with a name of Viktor Chebrikov and made unauthorized copies of classified material he would have been targeted too.

YOU ARE RACIST

WHERE DID IT SAY CHANCELLOR TIEN MADE UNAUTHORIZED COPIES OF CLASSIFIED MATERIAL???? RACIST!!!!

Calipenguin

Duh… read what I said.. google “Wen Ho Lee” above.

Guest

You don’t need to be yellow to copy classifieds. Look at Ellsberg. Shit, and the stuff he made public was actually worthwhile!

shadowsofTien

Whats with the abrupt ending? It was such a well written piece till Tien and Berkeley were completely left out in the end and Tien’s legacy barely even touched on. Tien cast a long shadow on this university and its professors. His legacy should not keep getting erased by the turbulance of recent years, the regents and his predecessors. Years later, his spirit was never to be matched and Berkeley went into the meddling hands of senior management, via the puppet new puppet of the regents and BP: Robert Birgeneau.

Matt

Is this the article that wins the Daily Cal its first Pulitzer?

Calipenguin

I certainly hope so.

adsahdj

screw this commie symp

Mokadee

I remember him standing on the sidelines, cheering on the football team, wearing his CAL cap, blue blazer, khaki pants. If you didn’t know it was Chancellor Tien, you’d have thought this guy was from Nebraska or Oklahoma. He cheered along with the rest of us and he wouldn’t let up until the very end. As the article clearly shows, he was everywhere. He loved CAL.

Guest

This is one of the best articles I’ve seen in The Daily Cal in a long time. Excellent work, Soumya!